This is how we roll... (Part II)

Hey everyone!

The other judges and I have collaborated over the past few weekends and have finally come up with all the questions needed for the tournament!!  We have even managed to create a handful of Sudden Death questions in case of any of you crazy HP fanatics tying with each other.

The categories have been updated and a few of them must be corrected.  Here are the new and improved categories you will get to choose from:

Spells & Potions

Characters

Mythical Creatures

Hogwarts & Hogsmeade

Magical Objects 

Dark Arts

And this is an example of what will happen in each Game:  In each Game there will be Player 1 and Player 2 (or Team 1 and Team 2 as you will see only for Round 1).  For the sake of example, Player 1 will go first.  Player 1 decides to pick "Magical Objects" and is asked, "What is the long pointy thing wizards use to do magic?"  Player 1 answers, "A spoon" and is declared incorrect.  The question is then passed to Player 2 for a rebound chance.  Player 2 answers "A wand" and is awarded 1 point.  Now it is Player 2's turn.

Player 2 can now choose from any of the 6 categories (6 questions per player).  Player 2 chooses "Mythical Creatures" and is asked, "Which creature breathes fire and flies?"  Player 2 answers "A dragon" and is awarded 2 points.  Now it is player 1's turn.  Player 1 can now choose from ONLY the 5 remaining categories he has left (all but "Magical Objects").  And this is how the game will proceed until all the questions are asked and all the points are tallied.

**Disclaimer: Actual questions in the competition will be Easy, Medium, Hard, or Very Hard (Sudden Death Only).  The questions in this example would be considered "Very Easy" and so nothing like them would be asked in the real tournament.

Once you are asked your question you will have 1 minute to answer and ONLY the first answer given will be accepted.  If the judges deem it necessary that your answer needs more clarification to be correct, "more information please" or "be more specific" will be requested.

In the even of a Game resulting in a tie, both players will be asked a Sudden Death question and must write their answers on pieces of paper provided.  The players have 1 minute to answer the question to the best of their ability and once time is up, the judges will review both answers and deem who came the closest to the correct answer.

So here's what you've all been waiting for:  The Layout.

There will be 5 rounds.  The first round is the only round that will consist of teams.  You will not know who is on your team until the day of the competition.  There will be 2 people to a team and only 2 teams playing against each other per Game.
There will be 8 Games played in Round 1.
1 Game=2 Teams against each other.
1 Team=2 Players.  Got it?

In this round, each game will be governed by two judges, to look like this:
Round 1:

Judges=Blue
Team 1=Red
Team 2=Green

There are 4 judges total, so in Round 1 there will be 2 Games going on at any given time, so 8 people competing at once.
Each team will have 6 questions to answer (one question per category), totaling 12 questions per Game.

Round 2:

Now it's pretty much the same as Round 1, except half the players.  Here you will go head-to-head with another contestant, with 2 judges governing your game.  8 Games in this round.  Now 1 Game=2 Players (instead of 2 Teams).  Each player has 6 questions to answer (one from each category) totaling 12 questions per Game.

~When Round 2 ends there will be a 20 minute intermission for a bathroom/food break.~

Round 3:

Here is where all 4 judges start to govern each Game.  There will be 4 Games in Round 3.
1 Game =2 Players.  12 total questions.


Round 4:


All 4 judges will govern each game in Round 4.  There will be 2 Games in Round 4.
1 Game=2 Players.  12 total questions.


Final Round:

All 4 judges will govern this last round.  1 Game=Final 2 Players.  12 total questions. This Round will determine 1st and 2nd Place Winners.

If there is anything else you would like answered, e-mail me at HPCompetition@gmail.com and I'll address it in the next entry.  I will be leaving for Orlando tomorrow at 4A.M. and will be picking up the prizes soon!  See you in a few weeks at the tryouts!!

-HPC Founder
Ravenclaw House                                 

One month until tryouts!!!

Hey Potterfans!

Due to high demand, the Tryouts AND Competition dates have been moved forward one day, making the
TRYOUTS to be on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24TH
and
COMPETITION to be on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST

Both are still from 2PM-6PM.

The actual competition in November will probably last from 2PM-6PM, but the day of the tryouts is just the day to go and sign up to be in the tournament.  You can show up any time between 2PM-6PM and I'll ask you a few simple questions about the books, as well as your Hogwarts House, and then I'll write your name down on my list.  The point is for people to meet, get to know the judges (there are 4 of us, one for each Hogwarts House), and get to see some of your competition.

If something comes up and you are unable to make it to the tryouts but you could still make it to the competition, then e-mail me at HPCompetition@gmail.com and we'll work something out.

I met with the judges a few days ago and am happy to report that the questions are coming along nicely.  One more meeting should finish the questions up (we have about 300/380 so far) and then we will be separating them into rounds.  The questions have levels of difficulty: easy, medium, hard, and sudden death.

After the tryouts, and once I announce online the contestants for the tournament, the judges and I will be busy pairing everyone up with rivals for each round.  You will not know who your rival is until the day of the competition.  We will be handing out pamphlets at the tournament with your name and your rivals name printed inside.

I'm working on a few more surprises for the contestants and if I play my cards right, I'll have more prizes to dish out!

In just 2 weeks I will be on my way to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Orlando (for my birthday!) and I will pick up prizes then.

If you have any questions or if there is something you would like for me to address in my next entry, then please feel free to e-mail me.

Keep reading and I will see you in 1 month!!!


-HPC Founder
Ravenclaw House

Date concerns? Please respond!

Hey everyone!

I have been getting a few e-mails voicing concerns about the dates of the competition. The biggest concern is the day of the week, which is Saturday. I want as many people as I can to participate in the whole thing, so I am posing a question to all of you and I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK!

I need to know if moving both Tryouts and Competition to the next days, on Sundays(October 24 and November 21) from 2-6pm would be better than the original dates. If not, and if the original dates are better than let me know. You can e-mail me at HPCompetition@gmail.com or post a comment with this entry. I want to know within about a week if we need to change the dates or not, and I will repost when I get a consensus.

Thank you!!!

P.S. As promised, here is an example question (level:easy) of what I will be asking at the tournament:

"Who is the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts during Harry's years?"

If it takes you longer than 0.00000001 seconds to answer that, then you should probably study up a bit...

This is how we roll...

The competition will start out with 32 contestants, each have been pre-paired up randomly with another contestant totaling 16 pairs.  In the first round, one pair of contestants will be called at a time to sit at a table facing each other, with one judge.  Before the game I will have already coin-flipped for every pair of contestants to see which player goes first and at this time in the game the players will be told who won the coin flip.  For the sake of example, let’s say Player 1 was chosen in the coin flip.

Player 1 now starts off the game by choosing from a list of 6 Harry Potter-related categories (Spells, Characters, Mythical Creatures, Hogwarts, Magical Objects, Dark Arts) from their own stack.  Each player will have exactly 1 stack containing 1 question from each of the 6 categories that they will answer to (totaling 6 questions per person).  Each player will have exactly 60 seconds to answer his or her question, otherwise it is considered false.

Each question is worth 2 points apiece.  If Player 1 answers their question correctly, it is now Player 2’s turn to choose a category from their own stack.  If Player 1 answers their question incorrectly, then Player 2 now has a 10 second chance to rebound on Player 1’s missed question for extra points.  If Player 2 answer’s the rebound question correctly, Player 2 receives 1 point.

The game will continue until all the cards are read.  Afterwards the points that have been recorded by the judge throughout the game will be revealed along with the winner who will then move to round 2 after all the other pairs in round 1 have gone.

In the event of a tie at the end of a game for any pair, a Sudden Death question will then be asked.  This Sudden Death question will be in the form of, “Name as much/as many as you can…” and will be written down by the players instead of said aloud.  The players will then have exactly 60 seconds to answer the question to its full extent and the player with the most correct response will advance to the next round.

This will continue through the 2^nd round (8 pairs), 3^rd round (4 pairs), 4^th round (2 pairs), and finally the 5^th round (last remaining pair) until there are 1^st and 2^nd place winners.  These players will then receive their prizes.

We will have some serious Potterfans there to compete, therefore answering the questions must be done carefully.  I will only accept completely correct answers.  Mispronounced (i.e. saying “Fermione” is incorrect, but saying “Her-mee-ohn” would be accepted)/misspelled answers will be incorrect.  There may be a time when extra information is needed to answer the question correctly, by which time the judge will ask “Extra information, please” and the player must give said information in a timely manner.

Don't worry, I'll repeat all of these rules at the competition.

And I think that's about it!  If you have any questions, either comment or email me and I'll answer it on the blog for everyone to see.

Here are a few comments and reminders:

**If you want to compete in November, you MUST SHOW UP TO TRYOUTS IN OCTOBER.  This is because I need to make the pairs for the 1st round before the competition starts.  In the event of a contestant dropping out and not wanting to compete, those who did not make it through tryouts may be then asked to compete, but this is pretty much the only exception.

**There is no age limit!  Yay!  I want everyone to play, from those just barely old enough to read a 7 volume series to 90-year olds who still have a sense of imagination.  Bring your friends, Pottermoms, Potterdads, younger and older siblings, everyone you know who loves Harry Potter to come and either join in on the competition or just come to support you and have fun.

**Join the facebook group and click "follow" on this blog, please!  We need all the support we can get and the more who get in on the excitement, the better.  Here's a link to the facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110722982315533&ref=mf
Also, the "Event" for the tryouts is up on the facebook page if you would like to join, although it is not required to join the page in order to try out for the competition :)


Stay posted, Potterfans!  In my next entry I'll be giving out a sample question!


Yours truly,
HPC founder
Ravenclaw House

Facebook group.

So now the HPC has a facebook group!  Search for "Harry Potter Trivia Competition"
Join the group and recommend it to your friends!  Let's get the word out!

Oh, and as a mini update:  I am now exactly half way done with coming up with questions for the event!  Only 189 more to go...  I'll keep thinking up more questions as long as you keep reading, Potterfans!

Until next time!

Emergency Update!

It's official!  We will have space for 32 contestants in the tournament!

So, I am hereby requesting that those who would like to either participate in the competition or would simply just like to attend the event to

e-mail me at  HPCompetition@gmail.com

And tell me your name, Hogwarts House and whether you'd like to compete or just attend the festivities.  This way I can gauge how many people are interested in competing in the tournament. I can also e-mail you with notifications including dates, locations and general news.  So hurry up and e-mail me!  Tryouts will be here before you know it and you don't want to miss out on being a part of this event.

Oh, I almost forgot!  Our guest appearances...

We'll be having two very special guests from Hogwarts show up to support the competitors in November: Professor Dumbledore and Hagrid!  So get excited, read up on those books and put your game faces on, Potterfans.  This is going to be a great tournament!

PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!

Before the tournament I will make a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter resort in Orlando, Florida and will return with the prizes for the winners.  So here we go for the prizes:

1st place winner will receive 1 chocolate frog, 1 box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and 1 replica of Harry Potter's wand (totaling approximately $50)

2nd place winner will receive 1 chocolate frog and 1 Gryffindor mug (totaling approximately $20)

Details are slowly fermenting with dates and locations.  The tryouts will definitely be in October and the actual competition is being moved to November in order to fall around the time of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie coming out (November 19th).

Stay posted!  In my next entry I'll talk about some guest appearances we'll have at the competition.